Part 1

(Part 2 and 3 after the jump!)

Part 2

Part 3

Hope to see everyone next year!

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After the panel, I would love to hang out and if possible, do a video with anyone who is interested. Then we can head out to Little Tokyo for a good old fashioned オフ会 (ofukai, “Offline Meet Up”).

UPDATE: Holy crap! This panel is going to be broadcast LIVE on NicoNicoDouga! Or should I say, NicoNicoNamaHousou… in any case, because of that, we will now have a mini Costume Contest and a やってみた (“I tried”) contest for prizes! If you are interested in entering or just watching, leave a message below!

See you there!

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I’ve been obsessed with NicoNama Cruise the last few days just cause of the wonderful randomness you get out of it. You don’t always have to understand Japanese, but it helps. And if there is a broadcast you like, you can visit that one with the button at the end that says 「この放送を見に行く」.

Sure, it isn’t quite as personal as chatroulette, but I will tell you now, there is a lot less male genitalia. Also, a cute Japanese girl comes up every once in a while. So give it a try!

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In short, I hardly ever paid him the time of day. Sure, he’d he’d occasionally talk about some cool think on some Japanese show like ナニコレ珍百景 (which filled the void left by トリビアの泉‘s cancellation) and I’d get phone calls to explain what Japan is thinking, but again, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But now… there is this:

(YouTube, CNN)

To give you some background, no one knows how the shadow Bad Apple animation was made. We know it was inspired by the silhouette iPod ads, but it has never been revealed how it was done. Theories of MMD usage and motion capture abound, but in the end, it is still a mystery.

Recently, a photography student then made a fantastic stop motion animation as a project out of printed frames of Bad Apple:

(YouTube)

Now, Mr. Levs here, he says about the photo project video, and I quote, “This is how they made it.”

Oh man. Seriously? He thinks that this is the making of BadApple??? He is correct about Bad Apple being #1 for weeks and weeks, but does that mean this guy has a NicoDou account?! But, if he can get a NicoDou account, can he at least take two seconds to do some fact checking with a friend who can read Japanese? Hell, CNN, please hire someone bilingual as your Japanese “viral” video guy (as a side note, the phrase viral video makes me want to puke chunks, much like a bad apple might).

Anyway, this guy went from an annoyance on a channel I never watch to #1 on NicoDou.

Of course, there are people who think he isn’t stupid, but rather is performing a 釣り (tsuri) the likes of which the world has never seen. I really would love to believe that, but I really think he just has no idea what the fuck he is talking about.

Technorati Tags: animation, バカ, ⑨, Bad Apple, Cirno News Network, CNN, 釣り, Josh Levs, NicoNicoDouga, photography, stop motion, touhou, tsuri, viral videos, 東方

ダブルラリアット (Dabururariatto) is a NicoDou classic. YouTube user rockleetist made an English version and put it up on NicoDou recently. It rocketed up the charts and is the first time I’ve seen so many comments in English on NicoDou.

In any case, if any of my readers are worried about trying to break into NicoNicoDouga, this is a fantastic way to do it.

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And my response? I definitely felt a lot more insulted by this than most of the times I’ve been called 外人. It really belittles my 12 years of studying Japanese, my time living there, my respect for the culture and peoples, and generally the entire direction I’ve taken my life.

I also think it is why I spend more time on ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) than a lot of the English-speaking Internets. I’m interacting with people who don’t know or care that I’m an outsider. They (seem to) respect the fact that I have taken the time to learn Japanese. There’s even a community cheering R and myself on to make more videos.

Actually, it’s true that a lot of people on YouTube have been very supportive, but a lot of it boils down to, “When are you going back to Japan.” The truth is, I really don’t know if I’m going back to Japan. And even if I did, I might not make videos without my partners, Rahman and DrLuka.

What I’m trying to say here is be respectful. Just remember what しじみ (shijimi) stands for; し（信じる）じ（自分の）み（道）, or “Believe in your own path.” I know how annoying little otaku can be. Hell, I was one 10 years ago. But I’ve grown up, I have a family, I have a job, and I do my little videos here in America now. No, I don’t get punched for what I do. People are generally friendly wherever you go.

And I really would like to believe that about the Internet as well.

Technorati Tags: Internet, japan, life, NicoNicoDouga, rant, respect, wapanese, weeaboo, youtube

10.

Although Bad Apple didn’t even warrant a real entry from me this year (it did get a twitter update however), it was pretty much the biggest video of this year. I give it 10 for being awesome, but way overplayed.

9.

There was a major RED ZONE explosion around early Feb. They are all awesome, but Shuzo has a special place in my heart (Although the K-ON! one was pretty close).

8.

This Cirno video was very influential this year. My two favorite mads off this one were the Shuzo one and the K-ON! one (apparently I have very particular tastes).

7.

The Training-type MADs were all the rage, but this one closed the book on them. It was perfect. If you aren’t an Eva fan, then I apologize.

6.

2009 saw the birth of Hammer Day, which is the 11th of every single month. This was the last by the original Hammer Guy and still the best IMHO.

5.

K-ON! was another big part of 2009, and this was the MAD that I couldn’t turn off. It’s just too brilliant.

4.

I personally started watching Haruhi this year, so when I first saw this video, I had no idea who any of these people were (but I loved the video). Now, at the end of 2009, I have seen everything and am anxiously awaiting the movie.

3.

The Family Mart chime remix fad was started by this video. I couldn’t stop listening to it. Simple and shows you a little bit of how to use a KORG to make amazing music.

2.

The last しも (Shimo) medley video practically introduced me to NicoNicoDouga and essentially prompted me to start this blog. This one, which came out in June, was more like a review of my time on NicoNicoDouga. The joy was unspeakable, and so this takes #2.

1.

While it may look like I’m tooting my own horn here, this remix of our video pretty much crippled me with laughter. By far the most enjoyment I got out of a video this year. Thank you みすとん！

Honorable Mention:

The 韃靼海峡 (Dattan Kaikyou) based MADs were excellent before they started getting deleted. Totally would have made the top 10 if not for that.

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What happens when Santa is seen as a Bodhisattva by a NicoDou obsessed monk?

This is very, very odd. It’s a Buddhist Christmas Service. But, I’m completely on board. Oh, Great Santa-sama! Please free me of worldly ties by giving me presents… wait, that’s not right. Maybe he really gives presents to Christians as a punishment for being attached to the world?

Anyway, this is definitely 6 of the weirdest minutes you’ll spend this Christmas.

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My number one favorite change? The ability to embed videos on any blog. Yes, Yamatologic will now have the NicoVideos embedded right here; no account needed. The draw backs are that the ads are annoying, and you can’t comment, so you know you want to experience the joy of the site first hand.

There is now a menu that you can bring up that give you access to things like もう一度再生 (“Play Again”), この人の他の動画 (“other videos by this person”) or ブログに貼付 (“post to blog”). These are handy dandy. The other ones are less useful to me personally, so I’m going to skip them for now.

The マイページ (“My Page”) has some neat new features. The most notable is the ニコレポ (“NicoReport”). It is essentially a NicoDou twitter feed. However, in keeping with the anonymity of the site, you don’t get to say anything in it, it just registers when you マイリスト (“my list”) a video or one of your videos goes up in the rankings; just little stats really. You can then register other people in your watchlist so that their accomplishments and actions are listed in your report. That plus community postings makes for an active report list!

Speaking of マイリスト, they now have an extra とりあえずマイリスト (Toriaezu Mairisuto) that is just an extra my list that never gets full, just kicks out old videos if there are too many, first in, first out style. I love it since that it essentially what I used one of my lists for anyway! It’s like a temporary queue, so then you can save the ones you really like later in your normal my lists.

The last major change is the ranking page. It’s no longer one long list of the top 100, now it is a crazy grid of the top 20 videos for various categories. It’s information overload, but I think I like it.

So those are the major changes I can think of. If you have questions, bring them to the NicoNicoDouga Help page, and let’s get some walkthroughs of what you want to do made!

Technorati Tags: 9, マイリスト, ⑨, Internet video, memes, My List, new version, NicoDou, NicoNicoDouga, videos, youtube

If you have ever spent any amount of time on ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga), you’ve bound to have seen the silly little animated gifs in the upper left hand corner.

This is a great little video featuring some of those redone with 東方 (Touhou) characters. Expect to see these avatars around the ‘tubes soon. The チルノ (Cirno) is my favorite. エンドレス⑨ｗｗｗ

Technorati Tags: Animated Gif, chiruno, Cirno, NicoNicoDouga, nicovideo, project shrine maiden, touhou